There was a great 25/50 deep game going last night, with two really big fish sitting on $10,000+ each. I had to compete with three very good players for them, but it was still a great spot. Unfortunately, I missed a pretty important bluff against one of the sharks.
The … Read full post
I hope all the Americans and anyone else who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had a nice time. I’d like to express my gratitude to everyone who reads and/or comments here at thinkingpoker. It’s enormously gratifying to know that there are people out there interested in what I have to say about … Read full post
Gary was a tough guy to work with. He had some mental disabilities that prevented him from engaging fully in the idle banter that generally passed between co-workers. Most of the time he did his job just as well as if not better than the other employees, but his strength … Read full post
The Boston Herald ran an article this morning about the Boston Debate League and one of its member schools which was nearly closed by the school district:
… Read full postThe debate team at the Academy of Public Service sailed into the “elite eight” last year at the national championships in Chicago.
Now,
Mark was our youngest employee. I knew him first as a customer who came in nearly every day and talked about how badly he wanted to work in the store. Sure enough, he started work on his sixteenth birthday.
The 7-11 was just a stepping stone for Mark, though. His … Read full post
I thought this new layout would kill two birds with one stone, both giving the blog a fresh look and fixing the font issue I’ve had for the last few days. Apparently only the former was successful. Sorry, I’m still working on getting rid of this ugly font. In the … Read full post
Eugene asked a great question about my recent post, A Random Call, which reminded me that I’d meant to post this hand as well. It happened not long after I snapped off a 2x pot river bluff with top pair, weak kicker. This was against the same opponent but … Read full post
I think the river 3-bet bluff is one of the sexiest plays in poker. Precisely because it’s so hard to pull off, it’s something I rarely attempt. But today I managed a good one:
Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
SB: … Read full post
I am a strong advocate of exploitive poker strategy. That is, I believe that you ought to tailor your play to exploit specific mistakes that you believe your opponents will make, even if this means that you are yourself open to exploitation. By definition, the more skillful player will do … Read full post
Thought I’m not playing the FTOPS events as compulsively as I have in the past, I am playing my favorites. So far, though, it hasn’t been too interesting and I decided to spare you the litany of bad beats. Last night I had my first … Read full post
It’s been nearly two years since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act snuck its way through Congress as a rider on a port security bill. The UIGEA criminalized not the gambling itself but the facilitation of financial transactions for the purpose of gambling online. In other words, you could play, … Read full post
I put in one of my longest online poker sessions ever yesterday, starting at 2PM to play the $256 FTOPS 6-max knockout event (ran like ass but as you’ll see I’ve got no room to complain), then making a deep run in the Stars Sunday Million that kept me up … Read full post
I was feeling so on top of my game the other day. I was just really alert and creative, picking up on a ton of spots where I could steal pots if I applied enough pressure in the right way. This was the best one. Unless they have exactly Khxh, … Read full post
I spent the better part of last week in Sedona, Arizona, which is a beautiful part of the American Southwest featuring tremendous red rock structures. Unfortunately, someone decided that these red rock formations have somehow created spiritual vortexes (and yes that is the correct pluralization, not vortices, I checked):
… Read full post“In
Norman was in his early thirties when I worked with him, and in retrospect a giant fuck-up. He was a lot of fun to work with, though. When we were bored, which of course was quite often, Norman would sporadically break into a verse or two of a self-invented ditty. … Read full post
I wrote this yesterday, about 12 hours after McCain’s concession, but didn’t get a chance to post it until today.
I can’t bring myself to get as excited as I feel I should be about Obama’s victory. I was pulling for him- he was in fact the first major party … Read full post
Bear wasn’t an employee, but he was one of our most colorful regular customers. I mean that both figuratively and literally: he was a hulking biker dude covered in ink from head to toe. Rose bushes entangled themselves with naked women on his arms, and his shiny bald head was … Read full post
Sorry at the airport on laptop so no easy access to HH but playing 10/20 HU guy opens for 60 on the button, I make it 211 with AKo, he makes it 533, I shove for a little over 2K, he CALLS with 42s. Naturally I am drawing dead when … Read full post
OK I paired the river but 8-high would have been good anyway:
Full Tilt Poker, $3/$6 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
MP: $600
CO: $1,712.40
Hero (BTN): $1,495
SB: $1,992.90
BB: $318
UTG: $1,206
Pre-Flop: 7
8 dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, MP … Read full post
Poker buddy, former student, and regular reader Diego (rvrmonkey ronfezbuddy for those who have been owned by him at the tables) welcomed his second child, Dahlia, into the world yesterday. She’s cute and all, but this pretty much dooms any chance of getting Diego into an NYC home game … Read full post
Had a decent morning at the tables but the real brag is for the Boston Debate League, which was awarded today a $50,000 grant from the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Foundation. The grant will support the BDL’s work with debate programs in the Boston Public Schools over the next … Read full post
My latest poker article, Knowing is (Only) Half the Battle, is now appearing in the November issue of the Two Plus Two Internet Magazine. The article focuses on the way different betting lines taken in an otherwise identical hand can change which player has the edge:
“In other … Read full post
Hatty was about my age, maybe a year older, but very much a teenager. The 7-11 where we worked was in Baltimore County, but it was just over the city line on Edmondson Avenue. Thus, it was quite accessible by public bus, which was how Hatty got there for her … Read full post